Tohsaka Rin sighed wearily as she put down her cup of tea. It was a sunny, mid-autumn afternoon.
How could a day so beautiful be also so dreary? How had things gone so horribly wrong?
In the end, it was all her fault and she knew it.
A year after the Holy Grail War she had moved to London, joining the Clock Tower with Shirou as her apprentice and Saber as her bodyguard. Everything had been fine for the first few months, but the pressure and the expectation had gotten to her after a while.
As a Japanese, she was less than a country bumpkin in the eyes of the European nobles, a little above a trained monkey, really, regardless of the fact that her talent as well as her lineage in some cases, far outstripped their own.
She was ostracized left and right, more so because of her talent. Arrogant sore losers, she thought.
Frustrated, she forced Shirou to partially showcase his unique Projection abilities, so that his accomplishment as a Magus would reflect on her as his master. It had been a bad call all around and it backfired spectacularly.
A first generation Magus being able to reproduce higher Mysteries with a combination of Structural Analysis and Projection turned out to be too much of an oddity and the administration covertly launched an investigation into Shirou's abilities.
His Reality Marble was subsequently exposed and Shirou was forced to flee the country, lest he'd become a subject for experimentation, with a Sealing Designation to his name.
Six months had gone by. Six months during which Rin tried everything she could to clear Shirou's name and stop the manhunt. Six months during which she had to sustain Saber with her resources alone.
Unlike most Magi, Rin had sufficient reserves of Mana to keep a Servant in the world of the living, a monumental task in and of itself, but even if she could do so it sapped most of her energies.
Without Shirou adding his own Mana through their tantric rituals she had little power to spare for her own research.
In an academic institution like the Clock Tower, no research meant no status and no status meant no influence to help Shirou out of the predicament she had put him into.
She was in a conundrum and to make matters worse she couldn't let Saber know about it. The King of Knights wouldn't accept being a burden and surely would demand Rin to rescind their contract, which was tantamount to asking to be left to die.
Rin didn't want to lose Saber as well. In the months after the war the three of them had grown steadily closer and eventually became lovers. A strange but functional arrangement, though not always completely smooth.
Now, with Shirou gone, it was just the two of them and Rin would be damned if she let go of Saber as well.
As her quest to help Shirou drew longer, the weight on Rin's shoulders did nothing but increase and it would have soon reached a critical point. Before that happened she needed to find a steady supply of Mana and the only way to get it was from another human being.
However, there was one single known way to bypass the human body's rejection of foreign energies and that was through the application of a tantric ritual. To make a long story short, she had to find herself a lover.
She considered her options carefully, weighed all possibilities, considered all angles and she didn't find any other course of action that didn't involve sacrificing things more important than her own pride.
No, considering that this situation was all her fault to begin with, if she had any pride at all she would have to make amends, no matter how distasteful she'd find the process.
With that resolve made the problem was finding a suitable candidate for the ritual and try as she might there weren't that many. Magi weren't very forthcoming to begin with and opening their reserves of Mana to another Magus would require both suitable compensation and assurances.
Rin wasn't wealthy, in fact she was in considerable debt, therefore she had nothing to offer besides herself. It wasn't unheard of for a Magus to be the subject of another's experimentation but it was a dangerous business to say the least.
It more or less narrowed down her research to one single person. A Magus whose research was focused on exchanges of energies.
It was perfect because it would give Rin what she wanted and would provide the Magus in question with material for his own research, however, it was awful because that specific Magus was someone whom Rin loathed with a passion.
Gerard DuFall was an arrogant asshole of the worst kind and to make matters worse he had made lots of unveiled advances on her in the past, especially after Shirou had left. She had shot him down every single time but the man never deterred.
Having to require his assistance now, and in such a manner of all things, was the most humiliating thing Rin ever thought she'd have to do.
And yet she had no other choice.
"I admit I didn't expect that you would come to me on your own, Rin," the dark-haired Magus admitted upon seeing her approach through the corridors of the Clock Tower, "but it's a welcome surprise nonetheless."
"Stuff the attitude, Gerard. I have to speak with you."
"It must be my lucky day," he sighed wistfully. "What can my humble self do for you?"
"Humble self, right," she scoffed. "Let's talk somewhere more private."
"And my day just keeps getting better by the minute," he chuckled while Rin shoved him unceremoniously into an empty room.
"Now, listen up," she said after firmly shutting the door behind her. "You wanted something from me and I'm willing to give it to you."
"I'm all ears." The gleam in his eyes was absolutely predatory.
"Don't let it go to your head, this is just a business transaction. I'll make it simple. I need a steady supply of Mana and it's not a secret that you are looking for volunteers for your research. I want to make a deal."
"What are you proposing?" he asked without a trace of his previous sleaziness. At his core, Gerard was a first-rate Magus.
"A self-geass scroll," Rin answered and Gerard balked.
"That's one hell of a request, Rin. A self-geass is an absolute binding agreement. Are you sure about it?"
"With the alternative being leaving my body in your hands without assurances?" she scoffed. "Yeah, not happening."
"Fine," he shrugged. "Let's hear your terms first."
"It's easy enough. I'll come over to your Workshop twice a week for no longer than an hour each time and you will replenish my Mana. In exchange, I'll let you run your experiments on me with the provision that I will not suffer long-lasting damage."
"Why accept any damage at all?" he quirked an eyebrow.
"I acknowledge that in the course of the experiments, I can get injured somehow. It's only natural. I'm fine with that so long as it's not permanent. Of course, neither of us will divulge knowledge of this agreement either directly or indirectly, unless we mutually agree otherwise, for whatever unanticipated reason that might come up in the future. It goes without saying that I will keep to myself anything that I hear or see while in your Workshop. The contract will be provisional for a year and renewable with a simple verbal agreement if need be."
"I don't know," Gerard replied, rubbing his chin. "A self-geass scroll is a real hassle just for that. I can get plenty of living specimens without it."
"What else do you want?" she ground out. She had expected as much from him.
"Compliance. Without your active cooperation, there's no difference between you and an ordinary girl. Well, not that you are ordinary in any sense of the word, but you get what I mean."
"Fine," she grunted, "but I expect suitable compensation. The standard hourly fee of the association will do."
"Apprentice level fee," Gerard proposed.
"You wish. Master level," Rin countered.
"Man, you strike a hard bargain. Fine, you have your deal. Meet me tomorrow, same time, and we'll go over the finer details. Oh, and Rin?"
"What?"
"I'm looking forward to working with you."
"Go to hell, Gerard!"
He chuckled and left the room, leaving behind a very upset and tremendously embarrassed Rin.
It was a good day to be Gerard DuFall.